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Cities Aviv

Brooklyn-based Memphis native Cities Aviv possesses a skill that is, at this point of music consumption, sorely undervalued and overlooked—he makes really good sounding music. Coming from a punk background, Aviv’s approach to the songs he produces for himself uniquely stays true to old-guard rap conventions like sampling of obscure disco and soul cuts but he adds his own flavor by frequently distorting his vocals and leveling them with the track. In January he released his first official album, Come To Life, which takes those soul samples, loops and speeds them up, creating a more danceable brand of rap.

That album’s weight is magnified with tracks like “Fool”, “URL IRL” and “Dissolve”, where over those vibrant beats, he touches on the matrix that we’re all being pulled into in 2014. His frequent gripes point to millennials’ heightened narcissism, loss of identity and how, he too, falls into the trappings of the digital world.